


In Another Life

by MarkedMage



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:08:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26370046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarkedMage/pseuds/MarkedMage
Summary: Maybe the world wasn't ready for them.
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar), Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 33
Kudos: 142





	In Another Life

It should have gone like this: Katara and Zuko, Zuko and Katara. It's a simple concept to imagine, a boy and a girl, two warring elements that can never coinside with each other, working in tandem, living in perfect harmony. Elements that are somehow so opposing, and yet when they merge, they are in perfect balance.

It should have gone like this. It should have.

(But maybe, the world wasn't ready for them.)

He accompanies her to the ships meant to bring her home, arms crossed, lips pursed, hair still up in its formal topknot. She loads her bags, lets Sokka and Suki have their turns saying goodbye, before walking up to him, tentative and cautious. He's quiet, eyes following her every move, but his frown softens as she bears, eyes turning a molten gold that reflects the setting sun.

"Hey," she murmurs. 

He sucks in a breath. "Hey," he murmurs back, and his arms open. Katara doesn't hesitate; she glides into his hug and melts into his warmth, burying her face into the crook of his shoulder, and breathes in the spice that clings to his clothes, _to him_.

"I'll come back and visit soon," she tells him when she pulls away. He smiles, but it doesn't quite reach his eyes, and he reaches out to touch the pendant at her throat.

"It won't be the same," he murmurs, and his eyes shoot over to where Aang waits on the ship. "None of it will ever be the same."

(In the middle of the smoke and the screams, a red star shines bright amidst the chaos. Sweat and ash and fire exist on the periphery of Katara's consciousness, but all that matters is the sweet breath of air on Zuko's lips and the tentative tremor of his skin under hers. In the midst of the fires, something is born in the deep recesses of Katara's heart, and it begins with the whisper of _Zuko_ that kisses her lips.)

She doesn't know what to say- _I'm sorry, forgive me, ask me to stay, please_ \- so she leans back into his warmth, pulling him close. As tight as she can hold onto him, because whatever little budding creature that dwells within her heart cannot, _must not_ , exists. It simply can't, not in this fragile world they've created. And so she tugs him close, as close as she can, and relishes the feel of him pressed against her one last time.

(In another life, she wonders. In another life, maybe we had a chance. Another world, another time, Katara would heal Zuko, and Zuko would have Katara, and the world would be theirs. In another life.)

"Don't forget me," Zuko whispers when she pulls away. His eyes are soft, soft and sad and gentle, the way she'll always picture them to be, and she musters a brave smile.

"I could never," is what she says. And then he smiles, and she leaves, stepping onto the boat that'll take her home, hand in hand with the Avatar who saved the world.

(All the while knowing that her home is at her back.)

~0~

They take up writing to each other as the months bleed into years. Katara is settled in her place at the Western Air Temple, and Zuko works on solidifying his reign. They don't write often, but it's more than enough, and she keeps his letters close to her heart. It's the closest she'll ever get to having him, and it's better than not having him at all.

_Where is home?_ He writes to her.

She writes back. _Home_ _is with the people you love._

She doesn't say what she wants- _that home was with you._

(She knows he gets it anyway.)

~0~

They don't see each other again until her wedding. Zuko finds her after the ceremony, on the cliffs above the Western Air Temple. He's wearing his finest robes, draped in reds and gold and looking like a perfect sunset, and he settles down softly onto the earth next to her.

She turns, silently studying him, and he watches her back. It's always been simple between them, perhaps it was just the years of raising a group of kids on their own, or the fact that Katara and Zuko have been very much in sync with each other since the very beginning. 

There are fine lines around Zuko's eyes now, lines that come with the stress and the fatigue of ruling a nation. He's tired, she notes, and when she places her hand on his, she can feel the tension stirring in his veins, heavy in his blood.

"Hey," she murmurs.

"Katara," Zuko says. "You look beautiful."

She turns her head, looks away, stares up at the full moon above her head. The air is singing with energy, every drop of water within her reach. She fingers the pendant at her throat, a new one that Aang carved for her, and Zuko doesn't miss it.

"What happened to your old one?" He asks, frowning, and reaches out, touches the pendant that carries both Water Tribe and Air Nomad symbols.

(What would fire and ice look like, engraved on bone? Would it look like this, a boy and a girl, surrendering to the night? Or would it look like lightning, a love turned physical, into a red scar blooming across skin?)

She shrugs, thinking of her mother's necklace in her box by the bed. "I'm married now, Zuko," she murmurs. "It makes sense."

Zuko frowns, and touches the orange silk of her dress. "And this, too?"

"It was Aang's idea."

It's quiet, and Katara breathes deep, eyes closed. She thinks of the boy next to her, and feels that little piece of her heart reserved just for him fluttering back to life, breaking free of the walls she forged around it long ago. It's hard, she notes, to ignore this feeling, especially when he's so near.

(She thinks of what could have been, if the world hadn't been so new, so vulnerable. A world where change could be accepted like a breath of fresh air, where fire and ice lived in harmony rather than contention. What could have been, if only she had stayed. If only she could have stayed.)

"You'll always be the waterbender in blue to me," Zuko murmurs, and she looks at him, eyes glistening with tears. He cups her face, smooths the skin on her cheeks, and wipes away the tears that have spilled over. "I just wanted you to know that."

She turns her head away, wiping at her face. "How's Mai?" She asks, changing the subject as quickly as the tides. Zuko's face falls, but he nods in understanding. Whatever is between them, it needs to die. It has no place in a world where it doesn't belong.

(No matter how much they wish it could.)

"She's good," he says. "The ministers have been asking for us to get married soon. I can't hold it off much longer."

Katara nods, ignoring the tightness in her chest. It's what the world needs, she reminds herself, even as the little part of her heart breaks. The Avatar needs his waterbender, and the Firelord needs his Firelady. Katara and Aang, Zuko and Mai, just like it was always meant to be. "She'll be an amazing Firelady," she says, and Zuko's breath hitches. "She'll be an amazing wife."

"Maybe," Zuko whispers. His hand falls onto hers, soft and tentative, and she lets him link their fingers together under the light of the stars. "But she won't be you."

Katara and Zuko. It's not what was meant to be, but it's what should have happened.

She sucks in a breath, turns to meet his gaze. In the moonlight, his eyes look almost silver, and she can see galaxies within those eyes, stars and world and wonderful places.

(Maybe, in the constellations of Zuko's gaze, there's a world where they take a chance. Maybe, in his star-studded gaze, there's a world where they make it.)

She doesn't say anything, but she doesn't need to. She smiles softly, gentle and bittersweet, and when he leans his forehead against hers, she finally lets the tears fall. Tears for a boy she could have loved, if given the chance.

_Would we have made it?_ He asks her, breathes it into her ear as the night rolls on. They have to go back to the party, or else they'll be missed, but she will cherish these last few moments where she gets to have him, gets to have Zuko, before she surrenders him back to the world. Just one more chance.

_I think so,_ is what she tells him, and his eyes are soft. He presses a kiss to her temple, holds her close, and whispers her name. She clings to him, memorizes the spice of his clothes and the way his crown shines in his hair. _I could have loved you,_ she realizes as they pull away. _If I had the chance, I would have loved you._

The next day, she takes Aang's hand and kisses him softly, after Zuko departs. They didn't have a chance, but she and Aang do. And when she gazes into his gentle gray gaze, she tamps down the image of sunset eyes burned into her heart.

~0~

Another year passes, and another. Zuko gets married to Mai, and Katara and Aang cannot make it to the wedding. Aang is stuck in the Earth Kingdom negotiating trade between warring villages, and Katara handles the drought in Ba Sing Se. She and Aang send along their gift, a statue of Iroh that Aang carved with Toph's help, and a heartfelt apology for their absence.

Later, when Aang has fallen asleep, Katara stays up late, a shawl wrapped around her arms as she writes by candlelight. She keeps the missive short and sweet, not enough of what she _wants_ to say, but all that she can. She brings her package to the aviary, finds the fastest hawk that she can, and sends her gift to the boy of fire who set her world alight.

She fingers the pendant at her throat, and dreams about _what ifs_ that night.

(Later, when Zuko receives the package, he opens it up under the watchful gaze of the moon. There's a note, and it says, _you once asked me where home was._ There's a pendant in his hand, bone white with age, with a scuffed blue ribbon dangling through his fingers. _With you,_ the letter reads. _With you._ )

~0~

She gives birth to a squirming baby boy a few years later, and they name him Bumi. The boy is healthy and beautiful, with bright blue eyes that'll choose another color later in life. She wonders what it'll be, whether blue or stormy gray, and refuses to picture a child with sunshadow in their eyes.

A gift is sent from the Fire Palace. A toy dagger, wooden and carved with a delicate hand. Aang reads the letter to her, that Zuko hopes the child grows to be as brave a warrior his parents are, and she cries.

Later, she receives another package, crudely wrapped, in the silence of the night. She goes out onto the balcony and unwraps it, tears pooling in her eyes as she uncovers Zuko's precious gift. _You were mine too,_ the letter reads, in Zuko's delicate scrawl.

(The Firelady crown falls to the floor, and with it, Katara's heart shatters. For what could have been, for what they lost, for a love that was never meant to be.)

~0~

Years pass, and they grow old. One by one, their friends age and die. Suki goes first, surrounded by her children and all her loved ones. Katara hugs Sokka as Suki passes, leans into Aang's warmth as she is burned. Zuko's the one who sends her off, tears in his eyes, and he pulls Sokka into a hug afterwards.

(When he touches her, she remembers a time before, where fire and smoke burned her lungs, when a boy wreathed in flames took lightning to the heart for her. Maybe that's where it all began, this slow theft of her heart. In the moment she learned what Zuko was willing to give up, and the moment she learned how to give life back.)

Toph and Sokka follow shortly after, Aang not long after that. Her husband of so many years, sending her off with a quick brush of his lips against her forehead. A _see you soon, my love,_ and then he's gone, and Katara is left by herself in the vast emptiness of the Temple. 

She mourns Aang. Loving Aang was very much different than loving Zuko, quiet and refreshing and filled with adventure. It was easy to love Aang, to surrender the rest of her heart to him. He was a good father, a good husband, and a wonderful man. Growing in love, and growing in life, with Aang, was beautiful in all its entirety.

The final days of her life are spent in quiet reminiscing, sitting by the fountain in the temple. In her hands, she holds two items, a betrothal necklace from her husband, the orange silk faded in years, and a Firelady crown that was never worn, still shining and glinting in the light.

(One life, two loves, and not enough time. Fate gave Katara two loves, but only one heart to give.)

Her daughter asks who the crown was from, and she tells the story of a boy of fire who gave up the world for her. Kya's eyes are soft when she asks, "Did you love him?"

"Yes," is what she says. "But I loved your father too."

Kya is quiet, and she presses a kiss into her mother's shoulder. _I know_ , she whispers, and Katara runs a trembling hand through her hair.

"Do you still love him?" Kya asks.

"Yes," Katara whispers. "I always have. And I always will." 

He comes to her in the days leading up to the end. She's in bed when he arrives, and she recognizes him immediately, even if time had worn away his young, handsome face. He's still her Zuko, with the fine lines and the bleached hair and the faded scar. And when she grips his hand, pulls him close, she sees her fire prince, the boy who took lightning for her, smiling back at her.

(A full circle, she thinks. It's fitting. For her to be the one to bring him back to life, for him to be the last one to see her off. Her first love, and her last.)

He places her betrothal necklace in her hand and pulls her close. "Katara," he breathes, and bends down, pressing his forehead against hers. "I'm sorry we never got our chance."

"It's okay," she murmurs back, cups his cheek with a trembling hand. "We'll get it someday. In another life, another world, you'll be mine."

He heaves in a shuddering breath, cups her cheek. "You have me," he says. "You always did."

_You always will._

He sends her off with a kiss to her forehead, and she dies with a smile on her face. _I love you, Zuko_ , she whispers in those final moments, and she holds up the Firelady crown she kept buried in her sleeve, presses it into his hand. _I'll see you again someday._

(Somewhere, in another life, there is a girl with blue blue eyes, eyes like the blue of lightning as it crackles across the sky. In another life, a boy with a wine stain across his face, a star shaped birthmark across his chest. In another life, another world, another place a girl with blue blue eyes meets a boy with a heart of fire.

In another life, in another world, Katara and Zuko get their chance, and this time, they take it.)

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this out of sheer spite and sobbing because of @lettersfromnowhere and her fic: four days and three nights, an absolutely gorgeous and stunning piece of prose. So basically what I'm saying is that this is a fic born out of tears and angst and all emotion, I have no idea exactly what it is. I didn't even beta this, so don't judge me too much for the sloppiness.


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